Welcome to another fantastic week everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It sounds as though lots of you had very busy weekends from what the children have been sharing with us today.
This morning we have moved onto a new focus in the Kindergarten which is hand washing and hand hygiene. We had noticed last week that this is an area where we need to support the children further in reminding them the importance of making sure we are washing their hands properly after going to the toilet, before meal times, and after we have finished playing. Over the course of the week we will be exploring how we can keep ourselves healthy, through washing our hands properly. We started with a group discussion surrounding the questions, When do we need to wash our hands? and what do we need to wash our hands. Today the children have been introduced to a hand washing song (Wash your hands- the singing walrus), We introduced hand washing posters that are going to be displayed in the bathroom for the children to use as a guide and a reminder when washing their hands. We also went into the bathroom together to practice washing our hands, using the knowledge that we had just learnt. The children did such a fantastic job at washing their hands today. During the week we will also be doing an experiment with bread to show us what germs are on our hands.
Today I introduced the children to our new take home buddy. Which they were all very excited about. At the end of each week (or on the child’s last day for that week) one child who has been working really hard in the Kindergarten will have the opportunity to take our special friend home for the weekend and document the adventures they go on together. Over the week we will brainstorming ideas of what we are going to call him today there were some wonderful suggestions such as Joey, the Kindergarten bear, and Barry. We will have two more days of thinking of suggestions and then on Thursday the children will vote for their favourite name and we will choose the one with the most votes.
Morning tea fun. Today for morning tea the children had the opportunity to create faces using the crackers and the variety of fruit options that were available. This was a great opportunity for the children to use their body awareness, as they thought of the features that make up our faces. This also provided the children with the opportunity to express their creativity using a different form of art medium. It’s not very often that children get the opportunity to play with their food. The children really enjoyed showing their creations.
Can you make a name mosaic? Continuing on with engaging with name recognition activities. This morning the children had the opportunity to create their name using small square of paper. Here the children traced over top of their letters using the paintbrush with glue and then individually stuck on the coloured squares. It was great to hear the children talking about the similarities they noticed in theirs and their peers’ names. This was a great opportunity for the children to engage with literacy that was meaningful to them, recognise their name and the individual letters, practice letter formations, and sustain focus for a period of time.
Puzzle exploration. As the children have been enjoying engaging with the puzzles, today I brought in some new puzzles for the children to explore that are a little more challenging. As the children engage with the puzzles, it will provide them with the opportunity to problem solve, persevere with challenges and work together with their peers. During morning activity time and quiet activity time the children will have the opportunity to engage and explore with these. As one of them has a lot of pieces we will provide the children with the opportunity to revisit this during the week until it is complete.
There was a large variety of child initiated play happening this morning in the Kindergarten, it was wonderful to see such cooperative play. Here is what they got up too. Cardboard box play, the children turned the box into a house, using a blanket over top of the house to turn it from night into day. They used the smaller boxes as a pizza box delivering pizza to the house. What creative and imaginative learners they were being. I love box play as it opens up the opportunity for children to be free and use their imagination. Imaginative play/role play was in full swing in the home corner with all of the children engaged in group play this morning taking on the various roles of Mum, Dad and their was lots of babies. I could here lots of discussion, negotiating and leaders emerging through this play.
This afternoon the children will have the opportunity to engage and explore puzzles, play dough, books, and whatever they initiate to engage and explore themselves.
Have a great afternoon everyone.